The speakers whom we expect to hear in online presentations (in the order of presentation title confirmation and photo submission):
Matthew BALDWIN
Deputy Director-General for Mobility and Transport at European Commission
Matts-Åke BELIN
Director Vision Zero Academy
Swedish Transport Administration
Adjunct Professor, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Lars EKMAN
Vision Zero Academy
Swedish Transport Administration
Rune ELVIK
Senior Research Officer
Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)
Presentation topic:
Speed as a key component in road safety casualties in both the Baltic region and the EU
Short Bio
Matthew Baldwin is Deputy Director-General of DG MOVE and was appointed on 2 October 2018 as European Coordinator for road safety and sustainable mobility. These issues are now the main focus of his professional activities. He is also managing the Commission’s network of COVID-19 transport contact points with a particular focus on helping find a coordinated, safe and sustainable way out of the crisis.
In his Commission career of more than 20 years, he has served in the cabinets of President Barroso, Commissioner Lamy, and Commissioner Hill, the last as Head of Cabinet. He has also been Director of Market Access and Industry in DG Trade and Director of Aviation in DG MOVE.
He is of Italian and British nationality, has two sons, speaks English, French and Italian and lives in Brussels.
Presentation topic:
Vision Zero – from Policy to Governance and Implementation Strategies
Short Bio
Dr. Matts-Åke Belin has over 25 years of experience within the Swedish government primarily worked with overall safety policies, strategies and collaboration with different stakeholders. In 2007 – 2009 Dr. Belin worked for World Health Organization in Geneva where he participated in the development of global road safety strategies and global partnerships.
Dr. Belin has also chaired the technical committee 3.1 on National Road Safety Policies and Programme, World Road Association and served as the international representative at the US Transportation Research Board (TRB) standing committee ANB 10 Transportation Safety Management. Dr. Belin is also the Swedish delegate in UN Road Safety Collaboration and he has served as national and international senior policy adviser and supported different Vision Zero initiatives around the world.
Parallel with his work within the Swedish government, Dr. Belin also has an academic carrier. Dr. Belin has a PhD in public health policy from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He is also affiliated with KTH Royal Technology Institute, in Stockholm, where he is serving as an adjunct professor on traffic safety. Dr. Belin is also responsible for a research program funded by the Swedish Transport Administration, in order to promote research in policy, implementation and innovation within the transport sector with focus on Vision Zero.
Presentation topic:
The implementation of Vision Zero next step – Implementation within an organization on a concrete level
Short Bio
Dr. Lars Ekman is Traffic safety expert at Swedish Transport Administration. He received his PhD in Engineering, title of the thesis: “On the Treatment of Flow in Traffic Safety Analysis – a non-parametric approach applied on vulnerable road users” and Licentiate of Technology with title of the thesis:“Pedestrian risk at Zebra Crossings in Sweden”, Lund Institute of Technology. Has worked as Associated Professor, Department of Traffic Planning and Engineering, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden and many national and international traffic safety projects.
Presentation topic:
Speed limit policy: the role of policy analysis
Short Bio
Dr. Rune Elvik has obtained four doctoral degrees in the fields of political science, philosophy and road safety. Rune Elvik is known for his work on TØI’s Traffic Safety Handbook that has been published in five languages and is a benchmark on current knowledge about the effect of road safety measures.
Antonio Avenoso
Executive Director
European Transport Safety Council
Dago ANTOV
Transport planning professor
Tallinn University of Technology
Raphael GRZEBIETA
Professor Emeritus in road safety
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Alexandre SANTACREU
Policy Analyst, Road Safety
International Transport Forum, OECD
Presentation topic:
How to improve the safety of goods vehicles in the EU
Short Bio
Antonio Avenoso is the Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council where he has been working since 2001. Within ETSC Antonio has managed several international research networks and road safety programmes.
He has worked in the “Railway and Interoperability Unity” of the Directorate General for Energy and Transport of the European Commission.
He holds an academic degree cum laude in Political Science from the University of Pavia and an M.Phil. in European Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Presentation topic:
Switching to Vision Zero thinking instead of finding the traffic rules offenders
Short Bio
Presentation topic:
What are survivable speed limits for a Safe System approach – some evidence
Short Bio
Dr. Raphael Grzebieta is Professor Emeritus in road safety at the Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research Centre within the School of Aviation at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Monash University’s Department of Forensic Medicine located at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, in forensic engineering, vehicle and road infrastructure crashworthiness, crash reconstruction, injury biomechanics and road safety. He has around 30 years of research and professional experience as well as around 350 research publications, supervised numerous PhD graduates and received several national and international major research grants and life time achievement awards mainly in road safety. Research teams he has led or been involved with have carried out numerous laboratory and field tests on road vehicles, road safety barriers, vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclist and motorcyclists) and more recently off-road quad bikes and Side by Side (SSV) vehicles. He regularly provides expert witness reports and court evidence for Coroners, Police, Public Prosecutors, Work Regulators, CTP Insurers and legal firms.
Presentation topic:
Ten Recommendations for Safe Micromobility
Short Bio
Alexandre Santacreu works at the International Transport Forum at the OECD in Paris, where he’s in charge of urban road safety. He leads the research on the safety of micromobility, and explores the use of new data sources in traffic safety. He manages an initiative called Safer City Streets: a global network of over 40 cities learning from each other’s road safety strategies and data collection methods.
Before joining the ITF, Alexandre has worked at Transport for London where he developed performance indicators for the Mayor’s road safety action plan.
Alexandre holds an MSc in Transport from Imperial College London.
Gundars KAINS
Member of the board
SJSC Latvian State Roads
Vidas ŽURAULIS
Assoc. Professor
Department of Automobile Engineering
Vilnius Gediminas Technical University
Henriette WALLÉN WARNER
Assoc. Professor Uppsala University
Senior Researcher VTI, Sweden
Aldis LĀMA
Data Analyst
Latvian Road Traffic Safety Directorate
Presentation topic:
Latvian State Roads Network 2040
Short Bio
Gundars Kains is a member of the Board of SJSC Latvian State Roads (LSR) with a term of office of five years from March 2020. In 2002, he graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of Riga Technical University and obtained the qualification of a civil engineer. He has been the Deputy Head of the Riga Latgale Suburb Social Service of the Riga City Council Welfare Department and Chairman of the Procurement Commission, Project Manager in LSR Legal Department, a Leading Project Manager in LSR Technical Management and Development Departments, and the director of LSR Development Department.
Presentation topic:
Assessment of risky cornering on horizontal road curve by improving vehicle suspension performance
Short Bio
Dr. Vidas Žuraulis specializes in the research fields of vehicle dynamics and road safety. He is as Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Faculty of Transport Engineering at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. His research is based on experimental field tests and theoretical simulations of vehicle active chassis safety, wheel-road interaction and human behavior in various traffic conditions.
Presentation topic:
Bicycling under the influence of alcohol
Short Bio
Dr. Henriette Wallén Warner is Associate Professor in psychology at Uppsala University and works as a Senior Researcher at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). Her research focuses on traffic safety including vulnerable road users. During the last few years, she has been involved in several projects studying bicycling under the influence of alcohol.
Presentation topic:
Development of road traffic safety in Latvia – measures, achievements, problems
Short Bio
Aldis Lāma is a Road Traffic Expert with over 30 year’s research and project management experience in the general area of road traffic. He has taken part as an expert in national and international projects as well as took part in many conferences about road traffic and safety problems. From 1993 he is working in the Road Safety field as a road traffic accident database expert in the Road Traffic Safety Directorate; since 2004 he is a member of European Commission group „CARE & RSPI national experts group”; from 2006 he is PIN panellist in ETSC.
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Jaakko KLANG
Centre for Economic development, Transport and the Environment
Road accident investigation board in Southwest Finland
Johannes VOGEL
Research & Teaching Assistant
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany
Julius UHLMANN
Research Associate
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany
Aldona JARAŠŪNIENĖ
Professor of in Logistics and Transport Management
Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania
Presentation topic:
Automatic speed enforcement in Nordic countries – today and future
Short Bio
Jaakko Klang is road safety engineer at the Center for Economic development, Transport and the Environment in Southwest Finland. His main mission is to design the transport system so that nobody should die or be seriously injured on the roads. He has 30 years of experience in road design, infrastructure construction, coordinate and support municipal traffic safety work and accident investigation.
He is road technical investigator of road accident investigation board in Southwest Finland and has investigated over 200 fatal road traffic accidents.
He has worked for 9 years in the Road Safety Division of the Nordic Road Association. He has worked for 13 years as Finland’s representative in the Road Safety Committee of the World Road Association.
He has written several articles for major Finnish road transport magazines from following topics: Vison Zero of road safety from theory to practice, the maintenance of transport infrastructure, transport system and the promotion of cycling and walking. His presentation on “Safety effects of lower speed limits during winter months” was awarded the Best Paper Award at the World Winter Road Congress 2018 in Gdansk.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor for Road Safety in 2015 by Finnish Road Safety Council, the Medal of Honor for Road Safety in 2016 by Police, a badge of the Order of the White Rose for significant work to improve road safety in 2018 by President of the Republic of Finland, the Medal of Honor with golden leaves for development of the Finnish transport system in 2019 by Finnish Road Association.
“My dad died in a car accident when I was 16 years old. It is always heartbreaking to face the sorrow of the loved ones of the traffic accident victims. Road accident prevention motivates me to continue my work to improve road safety” says Mr. Klang
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Presentation topic:
The Right of Way at Pedestrian Crossings in European Countries
Short Bio
Presentation topic:
The Right of Way at Pedestrian Crossings in European Countries
Short Bio
Presentation topic:
Improving the efficiency of the Vilnius city transport system in the context of safe and sustainable mobility and multimodality
Short Bio
Her recent research work has focused on Intelligent transport systems (ITS); Using of advanced technologies in transport; Transport means interaction; New information technology and information systems. How GDPR affects the logistics industry.
Aldona Jarašūnienė has participated in competitive research projects on advanced transport technology and logistic and she has been involved as a team leader, member and research of projects: EMAR (e-Maritime Strategic Framework and Simulation based Validation), researcher; Management traffic events using ITS. Client: Lithuanian Ministry of Transport, team leader. Strategy of public transport development of Kaunas region. Client: Administration of Kaunas region, researcher; Study of development of logistics trade and intermodal transport facilities in JSC “Lithuanian railways”. Client: JSC” Lithuanian railways”, researcher; The juridical and economical estimation of rail transport sectors reform. Client: Lithuanian Ministry of Transport, team leader.
Aldona Jarašūnienė holds an excellent record as an expert in preparation of logistics and transport specialists, logistics, warehousing and inventory management, transport management, intelligent transport systems, management of logistics systems structural units and others.
She is an author and co-author of 137 scientific publications indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, Ebsco and other databases, several monographs and handbooks for students.
Johannes MESIMÄKI
Research Trainee
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Anastasia Gennadevna SHEVTSOVA
Associate professor
BSTU named after V.G. Shukhov, Belgorod, Russian Federation
Ioni LEWIS
Associate Professor
Queensland University of Technology’s, Australia
Sonja FORWARD
Senior Researcher
Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
Presentation topic:
Collisions and Near Accidents Between Pedestrians and Cyclists
Short Bio
Johannes Mesimäki is a research trainee at VTT. He has been involved in a number of transport-related research projects in the last few years, ranging from the safety of pedestrians and cyclists to the advantages and disadvantages of light electric vehicles. Johannes is about to graduate with a Master’s degree in Urban Studies & Planning from the University of Helsinki.
Presentation topic:
Development of an approach to retraining of risk group drivers
Short Bio
Shevtsova Anastasia Gennadevna is associate professor of the department of operation and organization of vehicle Traffic BSTU named after V.G. Shukhov, Belgorod, Russian Federation.
Presentation topic:
Designing and Evaluating Road Safety Advertising Campaigns
Short Bio
A/Professor Ioni Lewis has been working in road safety and traffic psychology research for almost 20 years. She is based at the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q) where she is a Principal Research Fellow. Ioni’s expertise is in the development and evaluation of road safety public education and advertising campaigns. Her work draws upon social psychological perspectives of health behaviour change, attitude-behaviour relations, and persuasion. Ioni has an extensive publication record including two recent book chapters which look at the role that advertising plays in Traffic Safety Culture and another chapter forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of Transportation. Ioni was also the developer and Chair of the Organising Committee for the Australasian Symposium of Health Communication, Advertising and Marketing (HealthCAM 2014 and HealthCAM 2018) held in Brisbane, Australia.
Presentation topic:
Bicycle helmet campaign development and evaluation
Short Bio
Dr Sonja Forward is a psychologist and Senior Researcher with a PhD in psychology from Uppsala University. Her main areas of research include sustainable transport and traffic safety. The main area of research has been on mechanisms that influence behaviour and how this can be changed, with the help of education and information. Sonja has been a project leader of numerous projects both nationally and internationally. She has produced written materials, presented numerous papers at different conferences, mostly as an invited speaker, and acts as a referee to six different international journals, on a regular basis. She is also President of the Swedish Pedestrian Association (FOT) and a board member of the National Society for Road Safety (NTF).
Maris ŠEFLERS
Sales specialist Baltics
3M Latvija, Transportation Safety Division
Ansis AVOTIŅŠ
Chief Laboratory and Project Manager
Institute of Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering of RTU
Kristian Kaas MORTENSEN
Director, Strategic Partnerships
Girteka Logistics, Lithuania
Wouter VAN DEN BERGHE
Research Director
Vias Institute, Belgium
Presentation topic:
Traffic Management Solutions and Condition on Non-signalled Pedestrian Crossings in Latvia
Short Bio
Maris Seflers has Professional Master’s Degree in Automobile Transport, studied in Riga Technical University. Recent case study is completed in July of 2020; Traffic Management Solutions and Condition on Non-signalled Pedestrian Crossings in Latvia, Effect on Traffic Safety. He works in 3M Transportation Safety Division as Sales specialist for Baltics. 3M TSD mission is “We help bring families home safely”. On daily basis he collaborates with Road Authorities, Road Safety experts and Traffic Management companies.
Presentation topic:
Smart lighting system control issues to increase energy efficiency and traffic safety
Short Bio
M.Sc.ing. Ansis Avotins is a chief laboratory and project manager at Institute of Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering of Riga Technical university. Already several years he is Member of the Board of Latvian Energy Efficiency Association (LATEA) and also a member of IEEE for many years. Research topics are related mostly with street lighting systems, energy efficiency, quality and safety, including also developemnt tendencies and recent advancements and future challenges of Smart City Technologies. He is a recognized expert in this field and actively cooperates with industry and city municipalities, developing various mathematical models, development concepts and also providing expertise and field measurement services.
Presentation topic:
Vision Zero – for Europe’s biggest trucking company
Short Bio
Kristian Kaas Mortensen has extensive experience in International Sales and Marketing.
Kristian joined Girteka Logistics in early 2015 as Chief Communications Officer, from 2018 to 2020 he led the creation and implementation of Global Key Account Management. Starting in 2020, he is taking responsibility for Marketing, Communication and CSR, and will continue to be the spokesperson for the company.
Prior to joining the company, he was President of The Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance from 2009 to 2014.
He completed Supply Chain Management (2019) & Leading Digital Marketing Strategy (2020) at INSEAD and Leading the Effective Salesforce at Wharton School (2016).
Presentation topic:
Using safety performance indicators for monitoring and improving road safety
Short Bio
Wouter Van den Berghe has Master degrees from Ghent University (Belgium) in Electro-mechanical Engineering (1982) and Electronics Engineering (1984). After a varied career as a manager, researcher, consultant and trainer, both nationally and internationally, he became Research Director at Vias Institute in 2013. Wouter Van den Berghe has a very broad and comprehensive view on traffic safety and research. His specific strengths in traffic safety are policy evaluations, benchmarking, performance indicators, road safety culture and data quality. He is currently preparing a PhD at the University College London (UCL) on fairness in road safety policy making. Wouter Van den Berghe has been involved in a number of large international research projects in road safety, and is currently leading the global ESRA road safety culture initiative, the update of the data on the ERSO website of ERSO (European Road Safety Observatory) and the Baseline project for safety performance indicators in 19 European countries. He also is the author of the UNSRSC guidelines for countries for developing indicators in line with the UN global targets and indicators on road safety. He is also the National Data Coordinator for Belgium of the WHO.
Jānis KALNIŅŠ
Senior Officer of Road Transport Department
Ministry of Transport, Republic of Latvia
Arturs SMILGA
Chief of Road Haulage Supervision Unit
Traffic Safety Department, Latvian Police
Ivars AUSTERS
Professor of Social Psychology
Latvian University
Henok Girma ABEBE
PhD student, Division of Psychology
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Presentation topic:
Road traffic safety policy planning in Latvia
Short Bio
Jānis Kalniņš has an Engineering Qualification and Professional Master degree in Automotive Engineering from Riga Technical University. Jānis is a Senior Officer of Road Transport Department, Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Latvia. His responsibilities include coordination of national policy development in the field of road traffic safety and cooperation with other institutions on issues related to road safety. Previous employment is Robert Bosch GmbH, representation office ’Robert Bosch Latvia Ltd, Automotive aftermarket sales serviceman and technical trainer which involves technical training, consulting and sales support for automotive spare parts and diagnostic equipment of service and trade partners.
Presentation topic:
The Application of Technical Means in Road Traffic Control
Short Bio
Arturs Smilga is the Chief of Road Haulage Supervision Unit, Traffic Surveillance and Coordination Bureau, Traffic Safety Department, Central Public Order Police Department, State police, Republic of Latvia.
Presentation topic:
Measuring risky driving: Latvian perspective
Short Bio
Professor Ivars Austers is the head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Latvia. He received his doctorate in 2001 from Stockholm University. In Latvian University study programs he teaches social cognition, intercultural psychology, research methods, etc. He is actively involved in research on social identity, values, and driver behavior. He is a member of the International Association of Applied Psychology and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
Presentation topic:
The irrationality of assigning short deadlines to vision zero
Short Bio
Henok Girma Abebe is a PhD student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology specializing in the field of Practical Philosophy. The aim of his PhD project is to investigate how scientific knowledge is used in policy making and how policy, innovation and implementation processes can be fine-tuned to achieve transport policy goals more effectively and efficiently. The project includes theoretical as well as empirical research into how decisions are made by various actors in the transport policy area. He is particularly interested in issues of philosophical relevance in traffic safety policies and interventions. He is currently working on issues related to responsibility for road safety work, and goal setting in transport policy areas.
Modris CIEMS
Orthopaedic surgeon, Member of the Board
Hospital of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, Riga, Latvia
Adrian R. LESLIE
Assistant Professor
Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering, RTU
Rihards RUDZĪTIS
Product owner
Innovations department, LMT, Latvia
Domas ČESNULAITIS
Researcher
VGTU, State Service of the Republic of Lithuania
Presentation topic:
Injuries associated with standing electric scooter use and injury prevention
Short Bio
Modris Ciems is an orthopaedic surgeon and member of the Board, Hospital of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, Riga.
Presentation topic:
Introduction to Cloud Based MAS Control For Radar Type and Long Range Hybrid PIR Sensors in Smart LED Street Lighting System
Short Bio
Dr. Sc. Eng Leslie R. Adrian – is an Assistant Professor, Leading Research and a lecturer at Riga Technical University’s Institute of Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering, with emphasis on Robotics Mobility, Magnetics, Autonomous Systems, Sensory Systems and specializes in Alternative Energy Sources and Energy Storage. He is the Founder and CEO of Lesla Technologies (Lesla Latvia SIA) and a long-standing member of IEEE. He has expertise in robot manufacture, WPT for mobile robotic platforms, wireless power transmission systems for EVs and has a high level of experience in the invention, design and manufacture of a host of varying systems.
Presentation topic:
How to improve road traffic safety with the power of artificial intelligence
Short Bio
Rihards Rudzitis is a product owner and currently works at the LMT innovations department. His focus is the development of innovative B2G products and services in the areas of traffic safety, logistics, human mobility and infrastructure digitization using machine vision solutions.
Presentation topic:
Improving the efficiency of the Vilnius city transport system in the context of safe and sustainable mobility and multimodality
Short Bio
Domas Česnulaitis is studying Master of Transport and Logistics in Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. Young and promising researcher focusing on sustainable mobility, multimodality and innovation in transport. Since 2016, working at the State Service of the Republic of Lithuania at the Center for the Preparation of Personal Documents under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania.
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Kaur SARV
Transport and Logistics PhD student
Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Hilde KJELSRUD
Assistant professor, Nord University
Business School, Traffic section, Norway
Eva Brustad DALLAND
Associate professor, Nord University
Business School, Traffic section, Norway
Diva EENSOO
Researcher
National Institute for Health Development, Estonia
Presentation topic:
Sustainable Heavy Duty Driving in Baltics as Key Road Safety and Cost Saving Element
Short Bio
Kaur Sarv has been working with sustainable mobility topics for more than 10 years, starting with carsharing research in TalTech and sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMPs) in the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication. This was followed by work as Development Manager in Estonian 2nd largest bus company GoBus and now as Sustainable Transport Solutions Manager in Scania Baltics. His PhD research is focusing on sustainability questions in Mobility-As-A-Service and heavy duty transport.
Presentation topic:
How do driving teacher education and driver training process connect to GDE matrix in Norway?
Short Bio
Kjelsrud, Hilde, Assistant Professor and lecturer at the Traffic Section of Nord University Business School, in Norway. She is doing her PhD in the study of professional praxis; studying driving teacher students pedagogical observation of each other, as a peer learning activity in practical in-car settings. Her area of expertise is driving teacher education. She has worked as a driving teacher, educated driving teachers in Norway and she has conducted some international projects in addition.
Presentation topic:
How do driving teacher education and driver training process connect to GDE matrix in Norway?
Short Bio
Eva Brustad Dalland is associate professor in pedagogy. Her teaching, supervising and practical experiences are inside the education of driving teachers, driving school managers and driving examiners. Her Ph.D. thesis is: The driving test in a holistic perspective. Project research and publishing deal with the connection between curricula and driving test, connection between practice and theory, formative assessment, self-assessment and interactions between road users. Other research projects are related to immigrants and cultural differences as road users as well as horse users and challenges as road users.
Presentation topic:
Adaptation and Validation of Driver Behaviour Questionnaire to Estonian and Russian (poster)
Short Bio
Dr. Diva Eensoo is researcher at National Institute for Health Development in Estonia. Main topics of her research are pre-injuries risk-taking behaviour (especially in traffic); associations of risk-taking behaviour with biological indicators, personality traits, and mental health. She has published over 120 scientific publications, and has been supervisor to over ten master/doctoral students.
Anton PASHKEVICH
Assistant professor
Politechnika Krakowska, Poland
Ziedonis LAZDA
Deputy Head of the Road Safety Audit Department
Road Traffic Safety Directorate, Latvia
Māris GAILIS
Docent at Department of Automotive Engineering
Riga Technical University, Latvia
Presentation topic:
Driving Speeds at S8 Expressway in Poland Based on a Naturalistic Driving Study
Short Bio
Anton Pashkevich has a Doctor Degree in Geomatics and Transport Engineering. His research interests concern different aspects of transport engineering, especially road safety and eye-tracking studies. He is an author/ co-author of more than 60 scientific papers.
Presentation topic:
Road safety audit as a tool on a way to Zero Vision. Latvian practice (posted presentation)
Short Bio
Ziedonis Lazda is a Deputy Head of the Road Safety Audit Department. Since 2001, has been working at the Road Traffic Safety Directorate, main activities – road safety audit, road safety inspections, work on the development of standards for technical issues of traffic organization and normative documents related to road traffic.
Since 2002, has been lecturing at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of Riga Technical University on the best practice of road traffic organization and safety solutions.
Presentation topic:
Conference Section 1 lead, December 3
Short Bio
Māris Gailis is a docent in the Department of Automotive Engineering, Riga Technical University. The main research interests are emissions from reciprocating engines running on oxygenated bio-fuels and increase of pneumatic cylinder efficacy.
Tālis LINKAITS
Minister of Transport
Republic of Latvia
Tālis JUHNA
Vice-Rector for Research
Riga Technical University, Latvia
Juris SMIRNOVS
Dean of Civil Enginering faculty
Riga Technical University, Latvia
Juris KREICBERGS
Docent in Department of Automotive Engineering
Riga Technical University, Latvia
Presentation topic:
Address From the Minister of Transport, Republic of Latvia
Short Bio
Mr. Tālis Linkaits has been the Minister of Transport of Latvia since January 2019. Tālis Linkaits is a recognized expert in the field of transport for years. Minister announced many brave changes when taking office, including making railway as the backbone of Latvia’s transport system. He was the Head of the VASAB (Vision and Strategies Around the Baltic Sea) Secretariat at the State Regional Development Agency between years 2006-2018 and an independent Member of the Council of SJSC Riga International Airport in 2016-2018. In 2009-2010 he was a freelance Adviser to the Minister for Transport. He was a Member of Board at JSC Air Baltic Corporation in 1999-2004 and he acted as authorized State representative at LLC Baltic International Airlines in 1998-2000.
Presentation topic:
Welcome from the RTU Vice-Rector for Research
Short Bio
Tālis Juhna is a Professor of Water Technology and Vice-Rector for Research at Riga Technical University. He is among the Top 10 Latvian researchers of 2013, as listed by “Ir” magazine. Dr. Juhna’s research about the pathogenic microorganisms that can not be detected with cultivation methods but still are present alive in the drinking water supply networks were one of the most read in the journals of the American Society for Microbiology.
Professor Talis Juhna obtained the Degree of Doctor of Engineering (EngD) in Water Technologies in 2002 in Sweden and since March 2012 is a Vice-Rector at Riga Technical University. He has created one of the most advanced Water research laboratory’s in the Baltics that participates in the largest European research projects; as well as carries out practical researches for undertakings. Talis Juhna is a member of Editorial Board of several international scientific journals, worked as a Water engineering consultant, including in India. He received several awards, including New scientist 2006 of the RTU and an award of Latvian Academy of Sciences and JSC Latvijas Gaze for contribution to sciences. Among priorities of the Vice-Rector for Sciences is the promotion of scientific and industrial cooperation and integration of science and innovations in the study process.
Presentation topic:
Conference opening, discussion lead
Short Bio
Juris Smirnovs is the Dean of Civil Enginering faculty in Riga Technical University.
He has participated in the development of several Latvian national road traffic
safety programs. Author of more than 40 scientific articles. His main topics of
research are road traffic safety and asphalt pavement. Since 1997 he is a member
of International Co-operation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic safety—ICTCT.
Presentation topic:
Moderation, discussion lead
Short Bio
Juris Kreicbergs is docent in the Department of Automotive Engineering, Faculty
of Mechanical Engineering, Transport and Aeronautics, Riga Technical University, Head of
Board of Society Centre for Mobility Education and Technology Development (the co-organizer of the
conference), member of Latvian Road Traffic Safety Council, board member of Latvian Association of Automotive Engineers, for 25 years running a small privately owned business company. Obtained Engineering degree from RTU in 1984, MBA in 2002 from Riga Technical University Riga Business School.
Have designed the conference website, run a couple of conference pre-event seminars in Latvian, planning to run a post-event in Latvian, have communicated personally with all outstanding speakers of the conference to whom expressing the gratitude for contributing to this online conference.